Beam Global Spirits & Wine, the 4th largest spirits company in the world, today announced the much awaited nominations for the 7th Annual Teacher’s Achievement Awards. The Teacher’s Achievement Awards recognize individual merit with the twin objective of honouring excellence as well as exhorting others to scale new heights. Teacher’s Achievement Awards is conceptualized as an event to bestow honour and recognition to individuals renowned for their achievements in fields of Business, Communication, Entertainment and Sports. It seeks to recognize individuals at all stages of their career. Teacher’s Achievement Awards believes and stands for genuine achievement.

Meeting the respected panel of judges and announcing the nominees for the 7th Annual Teacher’s Awards 2007, Mr. Harish Moolchandani, CEO & Managing Director, India and Indian Sub Continent, Beam Global Spirits & Wine, India Business said, “It is a matter of privilege for us to recognize and honour talent and achievement in the country. The Teacher’s Achievement Awards has consistently rewarded achievers over the years and motivated others towards excellence.” He further added, “We are thankful to all our partners including our jury members and nominees who have supported us in this endeavour.”

Panel of high profile jury members, who have been achievers in their respective fields, have been appointed to select a winner. The panel of judges includes stalwarts like Harsh Mariwala, Chairman & Managing Director, Marico Industries Ltd.; Ravi Bhoothalingam, Founder & Chief Executive, Manas Advisory and Subir Raha, Executive Vice Chairman Hinduja Group India in the Business Category. The judges’ panel for the communication category includes Barry John, Sabira Merchant and Victor Banerjee. The panel of judges for the entertainment category includes Ramesh Sippy, Shyam Benegal and Ustad Amjad Ali Khan and Sports category includes Ayaz Memon, Micheal Ferreira and Zafar Iqbal as the jury.

Five eminent personalities have been nominated in each category of the Teacher’s Achievement Awards. The entire process of nomination and selection of both the nominees and the jury is validated by KPMG, the leading global audit firm. The eligibility criteria for a Teacher's Achievement Award nominee are stringent, adhering to those outlined by KPMG. Some of the critical deciding factors include a proven track record, originality and innovation, peer recognition and significant milestones achieved in the chosen area of expertise, among others.

Along with KPMG, an esteemed advisory panel consisting of Devendra Raj Ankur, Jagjit Singh, Kris Srikkanth, Milkha Singh, OS Kanwar, Prahlad Kakar, Pritish Nandy and SM Datta has been instrumental in guiding and suggesting the for nominations this year.

The winners of the 7th Annual Teacher’s Achievement Awards 2007 will be announced in November 17, 2007 at Hotel Taj Lands End in Mumbai.

Category

Name

Designation/ Organization/ Profession

Business

Chanda Kochhar

Deputy Managing Director- ICICI Bank Ltd

Neeraj Kanwar

Joint Managing Director & COO- Apollo Tyres Ltd

Ronnie Screwvala

CEO- UTV Group

Sulajja Firodia Motwani

Managing Director- The Kinetic Motor Company

Vinita Bali

Managing Director- Britannia Industries

Theatre

Dinesh Thakur

Actor & Director

Mahesh Dattani

Actor, Playwright, Director

Nadira Babbar

Actress, Film Producer

Piyush Mishra

Actor, Scriptwriter, Lyricist & Playwright

Vinod Nagpal

Stage Personality

Sports

Abhinav Bindra

Shooter

Chiranjeev Milkha Singh

Golfer

Jaspal Rana

Shooter

Manavjit Singh Sandhu

Shooter

Viren Rasquinha

Hockey Player

Entertainment

Irrfan Khan

Actor

Konkona Sen Sharma

Actor

Rajkumar Hirani

Director

Shaan

Singer

Vishal Bhardwaj

Music Director, Script Writer & Film Director

- End -

About Teacher's Achievement Awards

Since its inception, Teacher's Achievement Awards has recognized achievers in diverse categories such as photography, science, theatre and the creative and performing arts. Feroz Khan, the internationally acclaimed theatre director, producer and actor - was the recipient of Teacher's Achievement Awards 2002. He is man who put Indian theatre on the world map with his highly successful plays like Mahatma v/s Gandhi and Tumhari Amrita. He bagged the Teacher's Achievement Award for Theatre. Nagesh Kukunoor, the young chemical engineer turned film director who redefined Indian cinema with small budget blockbusters like Rockford, Hyderabad Blues, Bollywood Calling and more recently the critically acclaimed Dor, was the winner of the Teacher's Achievement Award for the Creative and Performing Arts in 2002.

The winners of the third Teacher's Achievement Awards held in 2003 were Naina Lal Kidwai (Business), Shiamak Davar (Entertainment), Mahesh Bhupati (Sports), Vikram Chandra (Communication) and Yash Chopra (Outstanding Achievement Award).

The winners of Teacher's Achievement Awards held last year in Delhi were Harsh Mariwala, Chairman & Managing Director, Marico Industries Ltd. (Business); Karan Johar, Film Director (Entertainment); Samaresh Jung, Shooter (Sports); Prasoon Joshi (Communication) and Ghazal Maestro Jagjit Singh (Lifetime Achievement Award).